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Callawassie Island's Pagkos recalls Summer Games experiences

Photo by Barre Wright/For Bluffton Today Callawassie Island resident John Pagkos represented the United States in the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympic Games.

Many of the United States athletes who travel to the Summer Olympics in London will bring along personal coaches, sponsorship deals and highly-specialized training regimens.

John Pagkos had none of that when he represented the U.S. in his youth.

Pagkos, a Callawassie Island resident, competed as a kayak racer in the 1956 and 1960 Games in Melbourne and Rome. Pagkos, 76, recounted his experiences recently in advance of the London Olympics, which begin Friday.

Growing up near the Hudson River in Yonkers, N.Y., Pagkos took to the water early. An uncle participated in Olympic kayak events at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952, and John soon followed in his footsteps. He joined his uncle at the Yonkers Canoe Club to begin training when he was 13 years old. By the time he was 20, he was winning national races.

“I got hooked on it,” Pagkos said. “You get in one of those boats, you’re not coming out.”

Pagkos made the Olympic team for 1956 and raced in a two-man, 1,000-meter event in Melbourne. He and partner Russell Dermond were eliminated in the heats.

Four years later, the 24-year-old Pagkos was back at the Games in Rome, where his 4x500-meter relay team once again lost in the heat stages.

Pagkos said he and his teammates were at a great disadvantage to the powerful race teams from Europe and Australia. Those racers’ methods were more sophisticated, and the New York climate made it impossible to train on the water throughout the year.

The only time the Americans got to see their competition up close, he said, was at the Olympics every four years. The U.S. did not send racers to the world championships at the time.

“We had to wait pretty much until Washington’s birthday before the ice would get off (the river). We were held back,” Pagkos said.

“When I was there in ‘56 in Melbourne, I saw some Hungarian training films and I said, ‘Oh my god,” they were so advanced. I had never had a personal coach. I had guys that had been to the Olympics that I trained against on the Hudson. That was pretty much the gauge, getting by them.”

After his team failed to qualify for the 1964 Games, Pagkos said he took a long break the sport. His job sent him to Michigan and Iowa, where he lived until retiring to Callawassie in 2001.

But he managed to stay close to kayak racing as it continued to develop. The formerly East Coast-dominated sport took hold in California, where racers could train all year.

Pagkos’ sales job allowed him to visit a U.S. training facility there, and he attended the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He wound up purchasing a kayak from the team after those Games, which got him back on the water, and he competed in world masters events in Canada and Australia in the 1980s and ‘90s.

“It’s been kind of a lifelong sport, and I had the advantage of seeing the development and the younger guys from the States come up training on the West Coast,” Pagkos said. “So I always had kind of a hand into it.”

His interest in the sport has not abated since he moved to Callawassie. He knows the major players for the upcoming Olympics, and is especially interested in watching the individual races next month.

Pagkos has also tried to raise interest in kayaking since he moved to the area.

In 2004, he co-founded the Callawassie Paddlers Club with Jack Krumpe. They teach the basics to residents and take them on recreational tours around the island. The club currently has about 150 members.

Pagkos also introduces kayaking to local children each summer as part of Callawassie’s annual kids camp. He estimated that between 200 and 300 children have participated in his program over the years.

“The people in our club are mainly beginner to intermediate paddlers, so they’re definitely not on the level John was with kayaking,” club member Andrea Gersen, who organizes the group’s outings, said with a laugh. “He’s done a lot to help the club grow. He gives a lot of lessons and helps people get acclimated to the water.”

The club’s turnout surprised Pagkos, who said that kayaking has always been a tough sell in the United States. When he talks about the water surrounding the Callawassie, open stretches that are perfect for racing, he sounds ready to suit up for the United States all over again.

“We thought we’d have maybe 25 or 30 people here. The first meeting we had 65,” he said. “The water conditions here, you could train all year long.”